Changes 2015

You may have noticed a few changes slowly rolling out here at Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey Blog. Yes, that right. I've decided on a slight name change. It's not as significant as some of the new title I had been considering, but it is a change. Who knows it might change again. I doubt it. I can't seem to bring myself to go from a general blog to one that covers a more niche audience, say, social media or movie reviews. I think the name reflects this.

The next—and more obvious—change is layout.

It was really difficult for me to bring myself to change the look that I've grown so accustomed to. However, I really felt that the old look had gotten stale, and I have to admit, it was ugly, cluttered and purple. The layout is still evolving, and I am still making changes to make the site more mobile-friendly and visually appealing, but I think I've got my new layout.

What else? What else? A new, cleaner and better written "About" page is up, and a "Resume" tab is slowly coming to fruition.

Finally, I start to post again, I hope to better adhere to best practices for blogging. 

So what do you think so far? Is there anything you'd like to see? Any gadgets, widgets or functionality you think I missed? Have an idea for a tab I should include? Let me know in the comment fields below.

For all of those who miss the old layout, click "Read More" below to access a screen cap of how it all use to be.

Until next time, Allons-y!

The Walking Dead Season 5B Predictions [Spoilers]

AMC's The Walking Dead returned to last night to eat our hearts out. Since everyone on the Internet has already reviewed and/or spoilered it for everyone else, I'm not going to review the episode or go into scene by scene recap. (Though the image above probably says it all). I will say that it was beautifully done and ranks as one of my all-time favorite episodes in the series.

It’s no secret I almost gave up on The Walking Dead back in Season Two. I was a purist back then, and I couldn’t separate my love of the Robert Kirkman’s graphic novels to appreciate the TV series for what it is. I could go into great detail about my conversion, but that’s probably best left for another post entirely. Suffice it to say, I’m glad I stuck it out. Looking back I’ve come to the conclusion that Season Two may be one of the strongest seasons in the series.

I’ve wanted to write reviews of AMC’s The Walking Dead for some time now, but I’ve been a little bit of a slacker. Perhaps I might still. Maybe a binge watch review or a seasons ranking post. We’ll see. For now I think I’ll stick to making predictions for the rest of the season.

Anyways, despite its strengths, Season Two deviated significantly from the comic, and the rest of the series seems to have been a slow trudge to getting the show more in line with the comics. As we’ve seen in the back-half of season four and the first half of five, the pace seems to have accelerated. Therefore, my predictions finds most of its basis on the idea the show-runners are bringing the two story lines closer together and staying more faithful to the milestone moments from the comics.

With that in mind, lets get the predictions under way. As always: SPOILERS.

Why Am I Just Now Learning About Humble Bundle?

It is an immutable fact that I will inevitably be reminded of how out-of-touch I am, especially when it comes to the internet culture and discovering really cool websites. I blame my age.

Today's reminder came in the form of a tweet from IDW Publishing that showed up on my Twitter newsfeed.

W/ over 120 issues for $15, you don't want to miss out on the Humble Transformers Bundle! Ends 8/6 @ 11:00AM PT http://t.co/MmNJJ6QGFz
— IDW Publishing (@IDWPublishing) August 4, 2014

Intrigued, I followed the link to HumbleBundle.com where I was immediately bombarded by the awesome!

Image Source:
Humble Bundle Facebook Page

As it turns out, many of my friends already use Humble Bundle to get game bundles on the cheap, and they made sure to point out how behind the times I am. Apparently, I've been living under a rock. In fact, Time recently listed Humble Bundle on their "50 Best Websites of 2014," calling it "a good place to go if you need some geeky entertainment on the cheap."

Formed in 2010 as Humble Indie Bundle and headquartered in San Francisco, Humble Bundle offers "digital creations" such as video games, eBooks, and digital graphic novels on a purchaser-determines-the-price model [1]. You can read more about them on their Wikipedia page, but I think their motto pretty much explains it all: "Pay what you want, DRM Free, Cross-platform, Helps charity."

It was the charity aspect of Humble's offerings that really got me to try them out, however. As it turns out, Humble Bundle often partners with publishers to release charity-driven bundles [2]. In this case, IDW Publishing is offering over 120 comic books (in collected format) of their popular Transformers comics for a minimum payment of $15. My only regret is that I'm learning about this deal the day before it ends. So I was not able to spread the word sooner and more often.

If you're interested in getting your hands on some Transformers Trade Paperbacks on the cheap while helping out charity at the same time, you better hurry. Apparently, this sale began two weeks ago and is scheduled to end tomorrow, Wednesday, August 6th, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time. For this bundle, Hasbro Children's Fund will receive whatever portion of sales has been designated by purchasers to charity. If you missed it, fear not! There are other bundles currently available with more certainly on the way.

Titan Comics Gives Us Our Doctor Who Fix in Two New Comic Series [Review]

Well, we're officially less than a month away from a brand new season of Doctor Who and a brand new Doctor. Like many of you, binge-watching previous seasons has become a tradition for me, a way of welcoming the Doctor back into my life. But if you're looking for ways to add variety to your tradition, may I suggest picking up a copy of Titan Comics's two new comic books series, both of which hit the shelves yesterday, just in time to drive fans and comic collectors bonkers in the lead-up to Comic Con this weekend. Can you imagine the lines at San Diego of fanboys and fangirls, all vying to get their hands on the limited runs of convention exclusive covers? Already much of the retail copies of each title has sold out of their first printings—and not just copies of the incentive and chase variant covers, but of the regular runs as well. Personally, I like the regular Alice X. Zhang painted covers best.

You can check out some of the different covers available here. 
UK Diamond Exclusive Covers [Image Source: david-tennant.com]

There were plenty of speculations about the fate of the Doctor Who comics after the BBC did not renew IDW's license at the end of 2013. When it was announced that Titan Comics had been awarded the license, rumors began to circulate that this move was only one in a series of maneuvers "to bring the US and UK publishing rights under one roof," but those were quickly denied [1][2].

Regardless the motivation behind the change in publishers, both Titan titles are definitely bigger on the inside (See what I did there?).  I thought that the writers of both books captures the spirit of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors well, not just in how David Tennant and Math Smith portrayed their respective characters on the show, but also the atmosphere of their respective television runs. The artists of each book play significant roles in translating each Doctor to paper and in rendering these stories in ways that are very appropriate to their respective Doctors. When it comes to story, Titan does not disappoint. Both books are set during periods in which the Doctor travels alone and introduce new companions to share the Doctor's adventures. Although spin-off media like comics are rarely considered canon, if Titan keeps their continuity as tight and as in line with the TV show and other spin-off media as IDW did during their tenure, we can expect these books to fit nicely within the series as extra-episodical adventures just as the IDW titles have.

Specific review on each title, after the jump. [WARNING: Spoilers possible.]